


Of a Chessboard

by reminiscence



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Freeverse, Gen, Poetry, ffn challenge: another mega prompts challenge, ffn challenge: becoming the tamer king challenge, ffn challenge: chess pieces challenge, poetry collection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-26
Updated: 2016-12-26
Packaged: 2018-09-12 06:40:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 796
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9059950
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reminiscence/pseuds/reminiscence
Summary: Because a war is a strategic battle of chess, but with more pieces and less predictability.





	1. pawn (Severus Snape)

He's tossed about by the times but he knows  
he's no rising tide. He chose the pebble's path  
and so he floats, is kicked around, and struggles

But never quite sinks, though when the water dries  
he'll sink, into that soft ocean bed – unless it's dried out  
with salt and acid rain. He's a bitter man and it suits:  
that dry-caked bed, and no less than he deserves  
but he perseveres, because this is his penance: his pay,  
and the silver threads that bind him his chains

Except they're not chains but chances: little fragments  
of possibilities and a miracle is in one of them –  
in his reach, so he can pass it on

And when he does sink, it's to a gentle low tide and the moon  
smiling at him overhead.


	2. rook (Hermione Granger)

It becomes more a strength as time goes on,  
as the knowledge that’s piled into their heads slips out  
of smaller dams. Not hers though. It was big and she’s built it  
even bigger. All those weeds and grass and flowers others pull  
and prune, she keeps, and they blossom in the forest  
in her mind

And yet the dam’s a wall: it keeps things out as well.  
It becomes more a weakness as time goes on,  
when answers can’t be found in books or in another’s  
words, because she can’t think outside the box  
when her mind’s a shut-tight box.


	3. knight (Draco Malfoy)

There’s a difference between family and friends,  
associates and colleges, peers of equal standing  
and the ringleader who cracks their whip and the others  
come running.

But it’s not a circus forever and roles change.  
He’ll crack a whip one day and no-one will turn around  
because he’s left them: stones he’s leapt over and passed,  
or else they’ve left him: found a better ringleader, or climbed  
the rungs themselves and taken the whip

And he’s left all along and he’s realised that jumping over the shrubs  
has left the road behind him bone dry.


	4. bishop (Albus Dumbledore)

That’s a downside of being right at the top;  
no-one can get close. Whether he’s the sun  
or the moon or the black hole – and isn’t he   
supposed to be the light that banishes  
that black hole?

But it doesn’t matter which he is; there’s a mirror  
to fill the rest, and too much of anything burns  
a width and keeps the world away.

There’s a large galaxy out there  
and the planets don’t touch.  
Only the smaller people on the planets  
can touch.


	5. queen (Ronald Weasley)

He’s always second best.

He despises it, at first  
but soon he learns  
the dusk is a force in itself  
but spared the scrutiny  
of the sun.

He can stand easy,  
make mistakes  
and not bear the weight of the world  
when it falls from them.

It’s a tough thing,  
to stand behind the sun.  
He can’t do it, at first,  
but he learns  
and his vision tunnels

Because the sun is the strength  
of the world, and he is the strength  
for the sun.

It’s not the most sparkly job in the world  
but, for the sun, it’s enough.


	6. king (Harry Potter)

He's raised as a lamb for slaughter.  
That's what they say, in the end  
even if it's false. They've only tried  
to save him, all this while.

Somewhere along the way, they found  
the answer too, even though it got covered  
up.

That's fine. He survives in the end  
and, more importantly, he's lived along the way.

There's no life to being wrapped in wool  
until his death. That's a lamb for slaughter  
and it's not him.


	7. castling (Lily Evans Potter)

She would happily lay her life down  
like a blanket to shield him  
from harm –

But they all said that, didn’t they?  
They all said they’d step in front of the spell  
or sword, and then dive out of the way  
when it was time. The mother who’d  
say they’d drown with their child  
until they drowned, then they’d drop the child  
and swim to safety and then recall  
what they’d left behind.

But she stayed her feet that wanted to flee  
and dropped him in his cot and covered him  
because there was water here, and she wouldn’t  
let him drown

But maybe it was easier to not let him drown  
when the green light was a so much faster death  
than drowning in the dark.


	8. checkmate (Voldermort)

His threads to life are cut  
and he doesn’t even see  
until they tangle at his feet,  
all at once…

He’s like a puppet whose strings  
have been cut, but he’s moved just fine  
until the final string is cut.

The one who holds the sword can see  
that slow path to defeat, but he cannot.  
They’re making the impossible a possibility.  
They’ll set it up so it’s a probability.  
But he still thinks it’s an impossibility  
until it’s not.

**Author's Note:**

> Becoming the Tamer King Challenge, Data Forest task  
> Another Mega Prompts Challenge, writing prompts 16 - roll two six-sided die. The sum is how many entries your poetry collection should have (8)  
> The Chess pieces challenge, various prompts


End file.
